4. Are you able to discuss all patients at your MDT meeting?

"The care of all patients with cancer should be formally reviewed by a specialist team” NHS Cancer Plan 2000.

There should be a written policy to enable all patients to be reviewed by the multidisciplinary team. This ensures equity of care for all patients who may be discussed at any or all of the following points in the pathway:

• At diagnosis
• After first treatment
• Following recurrence
• Patients with complex conditions
• Patients with unknown primary

Patients who need a treatment planning decision before the next planned meeting could be discussed via:

• E-mail group discussion
• Phone calls
• Video conference

Patients can be identified for discussion by: clinicians, nurses, radiologist, histopathology. Difficulties can be experienced when there is more than one route in:

Histopathology may be able to provide comprehensive lists. Does your hospital use report codes?

MDT meeting co-ordinator requests the Pathology lab to identify a list of all newly diagnosed tumours for that week.

How can we ensure that patients with an unknown primary are discussed at MDT meeting?:

All Networks need an agreed policy to deal with these cases.

Link with existing Clinico-radiological or x-ray meetings (usually held separately from the MDT meetings).

An identified link person possibly the oncologist pulls the information together for discussion or cross-refers the patients if needed to a different cancer MDT meeting.

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